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I mentally translate "Easy to use without training" as meaning "we've made big buttons for the easy things and have made everything else impossible. Or at least well hidden."
That means I snicker a lot at people who say, "Windows can be just as secure as Unix, if you know how to configure it properly."

So... what's COBOL like? I've tried skimming a book and tutorial or two on it, but somehow the syntax is too alien to me (not "Algol-like" as they used to say), and is sort of just washed over me. I just couldn't make sense of it.

COBOL was revolutionary for its time. If memory serves me correctly, it was an initiative, supported by the US military (though not a US military initiative, despite common misperception), to develop a common language. At the time different computers, if they had a high-level language, had a proprietary one. Several different computer manufacturers and government agencies collaborated on a two-step program (pun not intended) to create a common programming language for businesses. An interim language was